The mountainous terrain and rich coal seams of West Virginia have made it a center of coal mining in the United States, but this history is intertwined with tragic incidents. Catastrophic events... Read more »
The incident at West Loch in 1944 involved a series of explosions during the loading of munitions onto landing ships in preparation for Operation Forager, the invasion of the Mariana Islands. This... Read more »
West Virginia faces a range of threats from environmental hazards. These include severe storms, flooding, landslides, winter storms, wildfires, and, less frequently, earthquakes. Flooding, often exacerbated by the state’s mountainous terrain and... Read more »
The December 6, 1907, explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, remains the worst mining disaster in American history. Two explosions, likely caused by a spark igniting coal dust or methane gas, ripped through... Read more »